He says the right things, has done some of the right things, and also things that are complete head scratchers.

I think what we're seeing right now are the old habits dying hard with the kids. I think Dallas is going to break them, and rebuild them into better players. But I don't know how long that's going to take.

Some disconcerting things: merciless overreliance on Hall, RNH, and Eberle, possibly inadequate communication with players, if their running around in the defensive zone is any indication.

I agree with this except to say that some of the poor defensive play might have to do with uncertainty. Its takes time to learn a completely new system.
The team has been so poorly managed the last few years that the players are having to deal with the 4th head coach in 5 years.
Thats a tough haul.

Not impressed at all so far starting with pre season games and having veteran Smyth suit up for a lot of them which made no sense, 2nd complaint 1st game of season up 4-2 time for him to flex his power benches Yak second period, Yak has not been the same since , could see if they were losing but up 4-2. Hall was horrible that game never got benched. 3rd complaint pulling goalie so early will lead to a lot more losses than tying it up.

I would. Never got why Petrell was even here except to help us lose games. Why bring over a guy from Europe that does really nothing to improve the team? The AHL is littered with no-hopers like that. Petrell had three fights (his biggest win coming over that known enforcer Keith Yandle) and seven goals in ninety five games as an Oiler. I doubt Gazdic scores seven goals, but he won't stand around and do nothing while punks run around. MacT clearly like toughness in his lineup, so no matter what you or I say there's going to be a four minute guy on the bench. Given that, Gazdic is a giant upgrade on Smac. Retire already Smac.

And Acton ... meh. He's been no worse than Lander or MPS were for long stretches. One thing for sure, Acton is going to get his bell rung for him pretty soon if he keeps playing like he's NHL tough, but at least he looks like he's trying. Belanger was like a skating zombie here. He was one of the worst players on this team for his entire 100+ games in Edmonton. Four goals and nineteen points in 104 games ... and a void of suck that just destroyed the game of anyone unfortunate enough to be on the ice with him.

So yeah, for me Gazdic and Acton > Belanger and Petrell.

Quote:

Originally Posted by tiger_80

Gazdic is an excellent 4th liner and I would take Acton over Belanger. I'd take Petrell over Brown.

Gazdic-Acton-Petrell could be a pretty good 4th line, IMO.

Yeah, this too.

And as for Eakins .... I barely follow the AHL so I know nothing about him. Well, four games.
I'm not going to say anything based on four games.

Huh? Never thought I'd hear somebody say they miss Belanger. What a useless piece of ****.

I still get the heebie jeebies any time I think about Tambellini proclaiming on Oil Change, how Belanger wanted the fourth year on his contract so he could be here when the Oilers were good. That was as big a load of a steaming pile of **** as I have heard in a long time.

I have nothing against him or his tactics for the most part but I don't think he's made us a better team yet.

Yes we're doing better with faceoffs years year. THat's the only thing where I can say we're better off this season.

Need to get more out of Hall, Yakupov, and Eberle. He needs to find a way to get that bottom six working.

I'm pretty sure that Action is only here because Eakins brought him in. Eakins needs to elevate that guy's play. it's not working at all for me. That's all on Eakins. Brown also needs to pull his pants up.

Ryan Smyth shouldn't have been on the third line last game. That's going way too soft on him.

This far in, I'm done with questioning the coaches. The players themselves, the ones who are supposed to be superstars, are starting to worry me.

I think this as well. The coaching carousel has to stop at some point. I wonder at a certain point if guys like Hall, Eberle and Justin Schultz are even coachable. And if they don't listen other guys wonder "Why do I have to listen?" No matter who the coach is or what gets drawn up those three guys just seem to go out there and do whatever the hell they want. Sometimes it's pretty but a lot of times it's a disaster. They make the same mistakes over and over again and teams just sit there waiting for it. Hall and Eberle have no excuse. This is their 4th year and they still make some of the same stupid mistakes they made as rookies.

But I need more time for Eakins and the Oilers this year. They seem to be playing better but arent winning games. Theyve lost the goaltending battle every game even including the Jersey game arguably and Eakins cant do anything about that.

I like him leaning on his horses and some of his systems play but i dont know why you roll the same lines out in preseason then jumble them when the season starts. But if there's more jumbling to be had id like to see yak on the top line and eberle back with perron. If yak cant get hot with hall and nuge then it might be time for the pressbox. He needs to get Yak going, he's getting worse with each passing game and looks legitmately bad out there.

The culture is so broken here, they've lost for so long they've forgotten how to win. No matter what players come here, they instantly turn into composureless losers once they put on the Oil Drop. Prototypical bad team with different guys playing good or bad on different nights and never consistently getting everyone on the same page. Then at the first sign of adversity they just throw the system out the window, get nervous and start playing like idiots, not being able to make the simplest play. Maybe there's too much pressure to turn it around here. For the young players, the vets, the coach, the organization, for everyone. They just need to relax and play smart, some confidence would help too.

+ 1 I have no problem with the 4th line in doing what it needs to do. Expecting 30 goal scorers are we ?

I'm expecting players who don't get destroyed every time they hit the ice.

Frankly it's unbelievable that people are praising the fourth line when they gave up 44% of Montreal's shots on goal in like 5 minutes of ice time. That has to be some sort of record.

One legitimate hit and a fight that didn't do anything somehow evens that out? Give me a break. There are people on this forum with better basic hockey skills than Mike Brown. We're talking about a guy who tried to bank the puck off the boards and out and missed even though he was standing at the blue line and skated into it. His biggest hit of the night was when he slipped and fell into the boards.

He would get perfect score from if he admitted that this team played like **** in 2 periods vs NJ and most of the night vs MTL.

His comments are giving the team members the green light to suck.

Hopefully its just an act for the media so they get off individual player's case..

That is part of the training in the Leaf organization. Coaches/GM always take away the media's ability to single out a player if they can. Carlyle will not answer questions on an individual player's performance.

Main difference is that Krueger nourished the youngstars creativity to allow them to make plays.. and build confidence.. lead by example

Eakins is authoritarian and the players confidence is shot because their creativity they feel might be getting stifled.. this of course is where hemsky comes in handy who can make something out of nothing. Once the youngstars re-learn how to be creative with the new system i'm sure they will surpass krugegers defensive lapsed system.